Elemental Shaman DPS Gear and Best in Slot — 12.0.5

Welcome to our Gearing Page for Elemental Shaman. This section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.

Upgrading gear in Midnight continues to use the Crest system which lets you increase the item level of gear along tracks that relate to where you obtained the item, which harder content dropping gear that can be upgraded to higher Item Levels. For more information, read up on our dedicated page on how the gearing system works and what has changed in the Midnight expansion.

OverallMythic+Raid

This list contains the highest DPS setup across all sources for Elemental Shaman. Remember that while this is the best possible setup, you could end up doing similar damage with very different items in practice.

In some non-Tier slots, a max ilvl Craft will technically be optimal since you can customize the secondary stats to your liking. Your mileage here may vary.

FAQWhich Tier Set Pieces Do I Want?

For Midnight Season 1, Elemental Shamans want to try and prioritize getting the Helmet, Shoulder, Chest, and Gloves set pieces. This is because the Leggings have Versatility, which is undesirable. However, getting the Leggings to complete one of the bonuses is still better than any other gearing choice. Long-term you will want to play off-set legs with good secondary stats instead.

Elemental Shaman

1.1.

Overall Best in Slot

Locus of the Primal Core Helm

Catalyst or Lightblinded Vanguard Empowered Blessing of Speed

Earthgrips of the Primal Core Hands

Catalyst or Vorasius

Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn Neck

Midnight Falls

World Tender's Barkclasp Waist

Crafted by Leatherworking

Tempests of the Primal Core Shoulders

Catalyst or Fallen-King Salhadaar Amirdrassil's Grace

Greaves of the Divine Guile Legs

Nexus-Point Xenas Sunfire Silk Spellthread

Guardian of the Primal Core Cloak

Catalyst

World Tender's Rootslippers Feet

Crafted by Leatherworking Shaladrassil's Roots

Embrace of the Primal Core Chest

Catalyst or Chimaerus Mark of the Worldsoul

Sin'dorei Band of Hope Ring

Belo'ren Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Platinum Star Band Ring

Algeth'ar Academy Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Emberwing Feather Trinket

Windrunner Spire

Fallen King's Cuffs Bracers

Fallen-King Salhadaar

Gaze of the Alnseer Trinket

Chimaerus

Excavating Cudgel Main Hand

Windrunner Spire Jan'alai's Precision

Ward of the Spellbreaker Off Hand

Magister's Terrace

This list only contains items available in Mythic+ dungeons as well as the Tier set and embellished crafted items.

The main focus of this list is targetting the best pieces that have Mastery and either Critical Strike or Haste. It is not meant as an "equip all these items together" list. Remember when using Elemental Blast there is a soft cap at 86% Mastery, which drops to a (softer) cap at 76% Mastery when using the embellished Mail set.

TipsWhich Dungeons Should I Farm?

We recommend you farm the following dungeon:

• Windrunner Spire: Your by far best on-use trinket drops here: Emberwing Feather. There are also a lot of items with good stats for Elemental here, as well as another trinket that works great with the other one AND our best one-handed weapon

Elemental Shaman

1.2.

Best Mythic+ Gear

Locus of the Primal Core Helm

Catalyst or Lightblinded Vanguard Empowered Blessing of Speed

Earthgrips of the Primal Core Hands

Catalyst or Vorasius

Barbed Ymirheim Choker Neck

Pit of Saron

World Tender's Barkclasp Waist

Crafted by Leatherworking

Tempests of the Primal Core Shoulders

Catalyst or Fallen-King Salhadaar Amirdrassil's Grace

Greaves of the Divine Guile Legs

Nexus-Point Xenas Sunfire Silk Spellthread

Guardian of the Primal Core Cloak

Catalyst

World Tender's Rootslippers Feet

Crafted by Leatherworking Shaladrassil's Roots

Embrace of the Primal Core Chest

Catalyst or Chimaerus Mark of the Worldsoul

Bifurcation Band Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Platinum Star Band Ring

Algeth'ar Academy Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Emberwing Feather Trinket

Windrunner Spire

Darkfang Scale Wristguards Bracers

Seat of the Triumvirate

Heart of Wind Trinket

Windrunner Spire

Excavating Cudgel Main Hand

Windrunner Spire Jan'alai's Precision

Ward of the Spellbreaker Off Hand

Magister's Terrace

This list only contains items from the Midnight Season 1 raids and embellished crafted items.

TipsWhich Raid-Items Do I Want Most?

If you need to submit a list of highly-important items to your raidleader, or simply want to focus on the most important bosses and items, we got you covered!

• Locus-Walker's Ribbon: Our best passive trinket. Drops from Crown of the Cosmos.
• Vaelgor's Final Stare: Our best active trinket. Drops from Vaelgor and Ezzorak.

Elemental Shaman

1.3.

Best Raid Gear

Locus of the Primal Core Helm

Catalyst or Lightblinded Vanguard Empowered Blessing of Speed

Earthgrips of the Primal Core Hands

Catalyst or Vorasius

Amulet of the Abyssal Hymn Neck

Midnight Falls

World Tender's Barkclasp Waist

Crafted by Leatherworking

Tempests of the Primal Core Shoulders

Catalyst or Fallen-King Salhadaar Amirdrassil's Grace

Eternal Flame Scaleguards Legs

Belo'ren Sunfire Silk Spellthread

Guardian of the Primal Core Cloak

Catalyst

World Tender's Rootslippers Feet

Crafted by Leatherworking Shaladrassil's Roots

Embrace of the Primal Core Chest

Catalyst or Chimaerus Mark of the Worldsoul

Sin'dorei Band of Hope Ring

Belo'ren Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Bond of Light Ring

Lightblinded Vanguard Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Gaze of the Alnseer Trinket

Chimaerus

Fallen King's Cuffs Bracers

Fallen-King Salhadaar

Vaelgor's Final Stare Trinket

Vaelgor and Ezzorak

Brazier of the Dissonant Dirge Main Hand

Midnight Falls Jan'alai's Precision

Off Hand

Itemization

Enchants and Stat Priority

Looking to optimize your character? Check out our Enchant and Stat Priority guides for more information!

EnchantsStats

Due to our reliance on Ascendance, having an on-use trinket is almost mandatory for Elemental Shaman, though in some cases having 2 passives can be tolerable, but in Season 1 this should never be the case. You absolutely want Emberwing Feather as even a Hero tier one will be equal to any other Mythic tier trinket, and it is farmable in Mythic+. For passive trinkets you ideally want Heart of Wind (farmable in Windrunner Spire, like Emberwing Feather), Locus-Walker's Ribbon, or Gaze of the Alnseer. Make sure to macro your on-use trinket to your Ascendance cast!

Note that while crafted trinkets such as Darkmoon Dominion: Hunt or Magister's Alchemist Stone sim high and are indeed powerful, the opportunity cost of spending sparks on them makes them "bait" in almost every case. Do not craft these!

Aim to pick up one trinket from each of these categories as a pair:

Elemental Shaman Trinkets

On-Use - Emberwing Feather or, alternatively, Vaelgor's Final Stare
Passive - Gaze of the Alnseer or, alternatively, Crucible of Erratic Energies or, for long fights, Locus-Walker's Ribbon

There are quite a few other valuable trinkets out there, so make sure to click on our ranking chart to see if they are worth equipping.

Click for Elemental Shaman Trinket Rankings

Ranking	Elemental Shaman
S Tier	Emberwing Feather is significantly above every other on-use option, and is farmable in Windrunner Spire. Locus-Walker's Ribbon Works like Eye of Kezan from Undermine, meaning it gets amazing value on long fights or if you never drop combat in Mythic+, but takes a while to "stack". Gaze of the Alnseer is your best passive trinket for dungeons if you are not chain-pulling.
A Tier	Crucible of Erratic Energies is an overly powerful passive trinket if fully upgraded through the console in The Voidstorm (the upgrades work in raids and dungeons). It is the strongest passive trinket in the game for its item level, and tends to beat every non-S tier trinket even at Mythic Itemlevel. Vaelgor's Final Stare is the only alternative to Emberwing Feather but makes gearing awkward. Heart of Wind is a strong generalist option and is farmable Shadow of the Empyrean Requiem
B Tier	Glorious Crusader's Keepsake is the best trinket from Delves, it goes up to A tier if there are multiple in your party. Vessel of Tortured Souls has strong numbers but you need to constantly "pick up souls" which is annoying in practice. Drum of Renewed Bonds if obtained at a competitive item level, make sure you adapt it to the secondary you need most (Mastery or Critical Strike). Galactic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity is a solid on-use trinket until you get a better one.
C Tier	Forgotten Farstrider's Insignia, particularly with Mastery, is a solid stat stick until you get something at higher item level. At equal item level, it is the best passive trinket available, but only the Champion version exists. Thalassian Competitor's Insignia of Alacrity is solid for a PvP trinket. Refueling Orb is not bad if you are a team player. Eye of the Drowning Void Litany of Lightblind Wrath gives strong single-target damage on-use and shields your party for half. You still probably should not get this trinket, as it is a raid drop and you simply have better options. Reality Breacher is a bit stronger in AoE but nowhere near enough.
D Tier	Every trinket not yet listed belongs into D Tier or below. Most notably, Wraps of Cosmic Madness is very bad but will likely be buffed.

Midnight's patch 12.0.5 introduces two new yet familiar systems:

• Nebulous Voidcore are used to obtain items from specific bosses or dungeons, by letting you gain a guaranteed piece of loot from a specific drop-location. You still roll within the pool available there, but the next time you use a Voidcore in this location/boss on that difficulty, you will gain one of the items you did not get the previous time(s).
• Ascendant Voidcore can be used to increase the itemlevel of Hero or Myth track weapon or trinket even higher, up to 289, assuming they were already at the maximum possible item level from upgrading them with crests. This also works with Radiance-Crafted items at max quality.

Seasonal Mechanics

Voidforge and Voidcores

Check our our guide on the Voidforge to learn how to acquire this powerful upgrades!

Go to Guide

Which item you want to roll for depends on your progression and on what you already have, particularly from the Great Vault. It also depends on whether you expect to kill certain bosses on Mythic difficulty, as you do not want to waste your Voidcores on items you may be able to get on a higher difficulty track in a few weeks. As one would expect, you should focus on Weapon, then trinkets, then main armor slots:

Voidcore (Bonus Roll) Priority

1. Myth Track Mainhand
2. Emberwing Feather
3. Mythic Gaze of the Alnseer OR Mythic Locus-Walker's Ribbon
4. Remaining BiS List items, starting with Chest, Helmet and Legs

Upgrade your weapon first.

You should prioritize Myth track items over Hero track ones, unless you do not expect to get a Myth track variant of said item. For example feel free to upgrade a Hero track Locus-Walker's Ribbon or Gaze of the Alnseer if you do not expect to kill Mythic Crown of the Cosmos or Chimaerus anytime soon.

What you want to craft not only heavily depends on loot/vault RNG, but also on your progression level and whether you want immediate power to blast now, or want to maximize the medium/long term effectiveness of your character. In all likelihood, you will not fail to clear a raid encounter just because you're missing a little potential DPS on your character, you will do so because of mechanical errors.

Elemental Crafted Gear Priority

• Aln'hara Cane (Not the Pikestaff!) with Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt
• Farstrider's Reinforced Faulds with Arcanoweave Lining
• World Tender's Barkclasp and World Tender's Rootslippers (and removing other embellishments).

We highly recommend that you wait until your first Mythic Vault and if you do not get a staff from it, craft one: Aln'hara Cane with Mastery and Critical Strike. Be careful not to craft an agility staff! You want the Cane, not the Pikestaff. Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt is the best embellishment choice on a weapon. Note that you can alternatively craft the two-handed mace Magister's Valediction if it is cheaper or for transmog purposes. Again, be careful you craft the Intellect mace and not the one called Blood Knight's Mercy.

If you crafted a weapon for maximum immediate power, we recommend you then craft Farstrider's Reinforced Faulds (you do not want tier legs) or, depending on what you have equipped, either Farstrider's Trophy Belt or Farstrider's Razor Talons with Critical Strike and Mastery, and the Arcanoweave Lining embellishment.

If you do not craft a weapon, the Root-Warden's Regalia set is good across the board and will be Best in Slot by the end of the tier. You want to craft the belt World Tender's Barkclasp and the boots World Tender's Rootslippers. After that you should craft Farstrider's Reinforced Faulds or whichever armor piece or ring would be the biggest upgrade, with Critical Strike and Mastery.

Do not craft a neck piece, you should get Novice Combatant's Necklace from the PvP Questchain requiring you to do 2 Battlegrounds 3 times in a row, starting with Early Morning Training: Week 1 of 4. You can do those back to back in Training Grounds versus AI opponents, taking 1 hour total to get an excellent necklace you are unlikely to replace.

For more information about crafting gear you can visit our Professions page.

Unsurprisingly, you should sim your character to determine which upgrades give the most bang for your buck at any point in time. Beyond that, you generally want to maximize your weapon (and offhand), then your jewelry, and after that it is generally best to upgrade the armor slots that give the most stats: First Chest, Helm or Pants, then Gloves, Shoulders, Boots and Belt.

Elemental Shaman Crest Upgrade Priority

Weapon (Mainhand) ➜ Trinkets ➜ Helmet/Chest/Legs ➜ Shoulders/Gloves/Belt/Boots

You can add sockets to Helmets, Belts, and Bracers with the Radiant Jewelbinder consumable that you can get if you do not select any of the choices in your Great Vault. Not picking a choice will grant you tokens, six of which can be traded in for the Radiant Jewelbinder item that allows you to add a socket to the above piece of gear, if you acquired them in Season 1.

Throughout this page and elsewhere in our guide, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots. This is because every character is unique, and each gear piece you have access to can change what is best right now for you.

While we do offer recommendations for gear and trinkets, these are not complete replacements for simming yourself. The only way to truly optimize your character to that degree is by making use of the tools available!

Optimization

Simulations and Tools

For further reading on how to truly maximize your character's potential, check out our guide on Raidbots!

Go to Guide

Stormy

Guide Author

Follow Stormy

This guide has been written by Stormy, Elemental main since Wrath of the Lich King and member of the Storm, Earth and Lava Elemental theorycrafting team.